Arthur‎ Rimbaud / Zao Wou Ki - Illuminations‎ [édition hors-commerce] - 1966

Luxurious illustrated edition of 8 unpublished color watercolors by Zao Wou Ki, reproduced outside the main text.

Zao Wou Ki's watercolors were printed separately on pure Johannot filament vellum.

Uncut copy, in large-margin leaves, with a cream cover, folded, with the title on the spine and the front cover, all housed in a cardboard box.
The cardboard case shows signs of use and has been worn. It has a pleated cover at the back with some stains and handling marks. The interior is in good condition, with a few discreet and scattered punctures. Overall, it is in good condition.

This edition, not for sale and numbered (N4868), was produced for associate members on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the French Book Club.

Zao Wou-Ki, born on February 1, 1920, in Beijing, and died on April 9, 2013 (aged 93) in Nyon, was a Chinese painter and engraver who became a French citizen in 1964. In the 1950s, he was associated with the new School of Paris, then with lyrical abstraction before becoming, according to Claude Roy's definition: '...a great painter who, in his work, pursues at least a dozen great centuries of Chinese art, and who is one of the best modern painters of the West.'

His work is extensive. It includes realistic paintings from his early pieces, mainly portraits, along with some still lifes and landscapes (1935-1949), as well as large-scale oil paintings inspired by Paul Klee that lean towards abstraction from the 1950s, followed by lyrical abstraction in the 1960s, Chinese ink paintings, and calligraphy. Appreciated in the West and a friend of Pierre Soulages, Joan Miró, and Henri Michaux, he gained recognition in his own country starting in 1983. On that date, he was welcomed in Beijing, where his works were exhibited at the National Museum of China.

Zao Wou Ki - Arthur Rimbaud
Illuminations
Paris The French Book Club 1966
In-8 carré (26x22cm); 133 pages